


she was my angel

by dryadfiona



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/F, Forehead Touching, Grief/Mourning, Post-Canon, also pricefield-y i just didn't wanna tag bc the focus is on chloe's relationship with rachel, chloe having mental health issues about still being alive that i as the author do not agree with
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:49:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23249512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dryadfiona/pseuds/dryadfiona
Summary: "I loved her so much," Chloe had said after finding her body, and now that they've escaped the storm, Chloe needs to tell Max more.
Relationships: Rachel Amber/Chloe Price
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	she was my angel

Chloe's driving out of Arcadia Bay, and she feels fucking _awful_.

It shouldn't be a surprise, really, because as much as she talked about hating this place, it was her home, and seeing it completely destroyed around her, knowing it was _because_ of her, would've been a hard experience for anyone. Probably. It's not like she can ask anyone about it, or talk to anyone about it.

But it is a surprise to her, somehow. She's leaving Arcadia Bay forever, and she feels awful, and it's nothing like what she'd pictured.

She hadn't pictured Max at her side when she was leaving, either. It's not that she doesn't want her there; Max has been everything she'd missed this past week, and she never wants to leave her side again. But she's still reeling over finding Rachel's body.

Fuck.

Chloe smiles at Max to try and cheer her up, to try and distract herself from where her thoughts are going. Max smiles back, small and tired. 

It doesn't cheer Max up, and it doesn't distract Chloe.

* * *

They pull over to the first motel they see and ask to use their phone. The lady hadn't heard about Arcadia Bay yet, working the graveyard shift, wondering why her coworker hadn't picked up her calls. Chloe, facing the unenviable task of trying to explain 'sorry your friends and family are dead maybe', doesn't really know what to do, but she awkwardly explains that cell service is down and the roads are blocked by trees and boats and broken buildings, that maybe they're okay and just not able to call.

Max doesn't seem to be having a much better time, looking like a deer in the headlights on the phone with her parents, biting her lip hard enough to make it bleed.

"It's okay," Chloe says, talking to Max even as she's patting the back of the now-hyperventilating clerk. 

The lady eventually calms down enough to give them a room key. It's far from late enough to need to sleep, but Chloe and Max are running on no sleep at all. Besides, what does a sleep schedule matter when the world might as well have just ended? 

Chloe's whole world, anyway. 

They walk up to the room in silence, Chloe reaching out for Max's hand on instinct, Max picking it up just as quickly. Max unlocks the room and drags her in.

Max immediately turns, puts her other hand in Chloe's, looks up at her as if making sure she's still real. "I'm so glad you're okay."

"Yeah," Chloe says, not agreeing, because clearly everything would be better if she wasn't.

Max lets out a shaky sigh, goes up on tiptoes and presses her forehead to Chloe's.

 _\--Rachel, eyes sparkling, pressing her forehead to Chloe's and saying "you know what they're_ not _expecting?" in her normal mischievous tone, and Chloe feeling lighter than she had in years--_

Chloe jerks back. "Fuck!"

"What? Did I--are you okay?" Max asks, dropping her hands like she'd been touching a hot oven.

"You're fine," Chloe says, not answering the question, but Max relaxes. "I just--you, um. You reminded me of Rachel. The--forehead thing, she'd do that."

"Oh," Max says, looking guilty and small, somehow, and Chloe hates that she feels that way, that it's Chloe's _fault_ she feels that way. Another wave of self-loathing hits her, and she takes a deep breath, because she's here for Max, now, so she better step up.

"You would've liked her," Chloe says, and Max nods. "Did you, uh. In any of the timelines you were, uh, hopping from--"

"I never got to meet her," Max says. "I, uh, dreamed I got a text from her in my nightmare? But I don't think it's something she would've said."

"What'd she say?" Chloe asks.

"That I'd be seeing her soon," Max says quietly.

Chloe shakes her head. "No. She wasn't--she could get angry, but she wasn't, like, mean just to be mean."

"Angry?" Max asks.

Chloe takes a deep breath, reaches her hand out. Max takes it, much more hesitantly than before. Chloe gently tugs her to one of the beds in the room, and they both sit on one, facing each other. Chloe lets go of Max's hand and tries not to feel colder. It's just hand-holding, for fuck's sake. 

"Did you ever remember hearing about that forest fire that fucked up Arcadia Bay awhile back?"

Max nods. "Evan told me all about it." Her face goes distant, serious. "I wonder if he's okay. I saved him in, uh, another timeline. Maybe things were different enough that I didn't need to."

"Oh," Chloe says, the weight of what Max did for her settling in again. "Well, uh. The fire. Rachel started it."

"She tried to burn the forest down?" Max asks. 

"No," Chloe says, feeling like she can't explain, because she couldn't really fully explain Rachel when Rachel was there to make it redundant, anyway. Her words aren't enough for her. "She set a fire in a trash can, and knocked it over, and screamed--it was like the whole world was feeling her rage."

"She sounds special," Max says, almost jealous.

"Yeah," Chloe says. "Like you. I don't think she could rewind time, though." The joke doesn't really land, but Max smiles weakly back at her anyway. "She was--really quick, too. She dragged me into playing this character in _The Tempest_ , I think it was called, and she just--threw out the script and asked me to run away with her. In-character."

"Wow," Max says. 

Chloe smiles, reminiscing, Rachel's hands in hers, a kiss after ash rained down. She doesn't want to think about the years after that, how Rachel pulled away after Sera left again, about _Frank_ , apparently, about her rotting in a junkyard, about how Chloe escaped Arcadia Bay and Rachel never did.

"You really loved her, huh?" Max asks quietly.

"Yeah," Chloe says, and she feels a little too numb to cry, but Max reaches across the space between them to hold her hand anyway. Chloe takes it. "I did."

"I'm sure wherever she is," Max says hesitantly. "She's happy you're okay."

"I hope so," Chloe says, because someone besides Max has to want her still alive, right?


End file.
